Sunday, March 23, 2014

(un) Indian mother

India (length and breadth) by bike in (about) a hundred hours.

To all appearances, here is a middle-class, ordinary mother. IMO she should be given a medal for encouraging her boy (who suffered a bike accident and went into coma) to keep following his dreams in the face of extreme adversity (granted it is an exercise in stupidity but still). For India and Indians to grow (and grow up), many more of such mothers will be required.

Congratulations to Manish.....Raised
in Ranchi, Manish is currently a manager at an MNC in Bangalore. He did
his graduation in commerce from St Xavier's College, Ranchi in 2000,
and followed it up with an M Com from Marwari College, Ranchi and MCA
from BIT Mesra.

Manish started his east-to-west India
expedition on April 16, 2013 at 10.30 am from Tezu in Arunachal Pradesh
and ended the trip at Koteshwar in Gujarat on April 21 at 5.30 am,
covering a distance of 3,830 km, following the route-map provided by
Limca Book of Records in four days and 19 hours (115 hours). The
previous record was of 119 hours.

He started his expedition of
north-to-south India on May 31, 2013 at 7.30 am from Leh in Jammu &
Kashmir and ended at Kanyakumari in Tamil Nadu on June 4, 2013 at 9 am.
This distance of 3,843 km was covered in four days and 1.5 hours (97.5
hours). He broke the previous record of 102 hours.

The records mean a lot to Manish, he had met with
an accident while riding a bike in 2004 in which he ruptured his spleen
and fractured his knee and collarbone and was in coma for three days.
He said, "I am thankful to my parents who understood that it was an
accident and never discouraged me from getting on a bike thereafter.
Especially my mom, who unlike other mothers, never asked me to refrain
from riding."